Ben Askren claims ‘idiots’ Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington both messed up negotiations
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After Colby Covington beat Robbie Lawler at UFC Newark, all signs pointed to him fighting Kamaru Usman next for the title. The fight was also expected to headline UFC 244, yet that is not the case.
Negotiations between the two fell off and the Las Vegas-based promotion went with Jorge Masvidal vs. Nate Diaz to headline the card. According to Ben Askren, he believes Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman made a huge mistake and their contract negotiations and for right now, it cost them the fight.
‘Funky’ believes both priced themselves out and aren’t worth how much they asked the UFC for.
“These guys are idiots,” he said. “It’s not the first time I’ve told you they were idiots, and you guys should have listened to me before,” Ben Askren said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “I mean holy crap. These guys Covington and Kamaru can’t get it right — I called him Kamaru, his name is Marty, what am I talk about here? They can’t get it right. This is not from the UFC. This is my take, what I heard happened.”
“Colby Covington says ‘I want a whole bunch of money,’” Askren continued. “Colby, you’re not worth that much money. I’m all about fighters’ rights here. I do think MMA fighters as a whole should probably be paid more. But at the same time, unless you’re part of that movement, you have to deal with yourself individually — one versus the UFC. So Colby shoots it way out of the ballpark, they say ‘yeah right dude, get lost. You’re not worth close to that much.’ He is not nearly as popular as you think. So [the UFC says] ‘Colby, get lost. We’re bringing in Jorge [Masvidal to fight Usman].’ Then Marty says ‘well if I’m fighting Jorge, I want more money!’ And they said ‘what? Nobody gives a damn about watching you fight, Marty. Get out of here!’ Then they made Jorge and Nate [Diaz] the main event, which people are excited for.”
Right now, Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington is clearly the fight to make. The two generally do not like each other but whether or not that will translate into a fight is unknown. The UFC has passed over ‘Chaos’ before and they even threatened to strip Usman so the possibility of the fight not happening is high.
For Ben Askren, if the two do not fight, he would not be surprised as he says the two ‘idiots’ don’t realize their actual value is a lot lower than what they think.
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The Scrap’s Cole Shelton is a full-time MMA writer for various news outlets. Make sure to follow Cole on Twitter (@ColeShelton91) for a variety of content.
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